Fallout 4

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fadingsignal

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fadingsignal

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About this mod

FO4 Particle Patch is a comprehensive mod that updates hundreds of mesh and material files to make fog, smoke, water, blood, dirt puffs, dust (and much more) glow in the dark less, and better utilize ambient & point lighting. Also improves distance rendering for Far Harbor fog effects.

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 O V E R V I E W 

If you play Fallout 4 with any sort of mod that makes nights and interiors darker, you'll notice that a lot of objects such as fog, smoke, water, blood, etc. can "glow in the dark", since they were originally designed around the brighter lighting present in the base game.

After being spoiled by mods for Skyrim that address this, I decided it was finally time for Fallout 4 to get similar attention and treatment.

Fallout 4 Particle Patch updates hundreds of mesh and material files to make fog, smoke, water, blood, dirt puffs, ice, mist beams, dust motes, flying leaves, creature wings, bullet trails, weapon FX, splashes, glass, foot impacts, and much more to better utilize ambient and point lighting (i.e. Pip-Boy light.) As a result, these effects will blend much better into environments and appear to "glow" less in dark areas and at night.

This mod also tweaks and improves a number of effects; For example, the fog effects in Far Harbor have been updated to render from further away, instead of only in your immediate vicinity.  Blood impacts have been slightly tweaked for a bit more realism.

Please see screenshots for visual examples.

This mod is mostly complete but will likely have future updates with other objects as they are found.

The best way to experience this mod is to give it a shot! If you don't like how it looks with your mod setup, my feelings won't be hurt :)

 R E Q U I R E M E N T S

  • Gloomy Glass is a soft requirement and is highly recommended to cover most glass objects as a base. The author did great work balancing out what is possible, and it made sense to not reinvent the wheel. This mod will work without it, but many glass objects will glow in the dark.

 C O M P A T I B I L I T Y  

Works great with Enhanced Blood Textures, as that mostly handles blood decals/splatters.  This mod uses a custom/unique blood impact texture (the spurt when you shoot something) so I recommend letting it override EBT and see how you like it.  If not you can load EBT after and it will be fine.

In general you can keep this earlier in your load order and let whatever other mods overwrite it if you want.  There aren't many mods that modify these objects, so there likely won't be many conflicts.  It's mostly meshes and material files, so no stress.

Fully compatible with PRP. This mod alters some effect references in the world but does not affect precombined/previs data, nor does it require a PRP patch.  Just set PRP up the way it's instructed (i.e. make sure PRP.esp is below this.)

 I N S T A L L A T I O N  

Can be added/removed at any time. Put this high up (early) in your load order and let other mods overwrite. For example:

  • Gloomy Glass
  • Blood Mods (i.e. Enhanced Blood Textures)
  • FO4ParticlePatch (this mod) <--
  • Any other mods that change interior cell lighting (ELFX, etc)

Ultimately this mod is mostly materials and meshes, so you can let whatever mods you want overwrite files from this one. It won't cause any problems aside from maybe some visual inconsistency.

✦ N O T E S 

  • This does not require ENB.
  • This does not affect weathers.
  • This is not a performance enhancement mod, nor does it adversely affect performance.
  • It is recommended that this be used as a base, then let your favorite mods overwrite.
  • Works best with darker nights / interiors mods but works just fine with vanilla lighting.
  • This mod does not affect precombined meshes or previs data.
  • Some effects were only changed in subtle ways to prevent altering/damaging their overall look (e.g. pulse grenade explosions.)
  • There may be objects that were missed during my sweeps. If you find something that is bothersome please let me know and I'll look into it. This will likely be an ongoing project.
  • This can be added/removed at any time.
  • If you're interested in which files are affected there is a text file in the archive with the full list of files.
  • This mod makes particles and effects heavily dependent on the EFFECT LIGHTING value present in weather/cell data. If you're using a darker nights mods but still seeing bright objects, that weather mod may not have dialed in the effect lighting values properly.

✦ F A Q 

Q: Does this affect performance?
A: Everything is the same as vanilla with the exception of the Far Harbor fogs, which will now render at an increased distance (the edge of the player's current cell.) I saw no performance drops, but please let me know if you experience any.

Q: Is this the same as the Skyrim Particle Patch?
A: In some ways yes, in many ways, no. Skyrim's ENB has much more articulate control over particles, fires, and other object types, where ENB for Fallout 4 does not, so I did what was possible within the means.

Q: Does this cover fires, sparks, and gunshot FX?
A: No, this is aimed at dimming things that should NOT be glowing. But keep your eyes peeled for something interesting coming soon...

Q: I still see a lot of bright objects, what's wrong?
A: Either it's something I missed (please leave a comment about it) or the weather mod you're using has bright effect lighting. See the sticky post about how you can tweak effect lighting to your liking in FO4Edit.